It took a while but he is finished: Kikker (which is frog in Dutch)! The pattern was published a long time ago in the Dutch magazine Ouders van Nu, and in 2014 I got permission to publish a screen print of the pattern. Click here for the blog post in which the pattern can be found. There are a few things I'd like to tell you about the pattern. First of all: Kikker is 42cm long, which is a lot longer than I thought he would be.

It is not a simple pattern, and that is mainly because the way of writing is different from many patterns that are published today. But in the end it is possible to make the frog, as long as you read well. That may sound silly, but I noticed that sometimes I make mistakes myself when crocheting the patterns of others because I don't do what the pattern says I should do. So important: do whatever the pattern tells you to do.

When I started making the head I often thought: is this going well? There are many increases as from a certain point, so the mouth started to wrinkle a lot. But I went on and in the end it did turn out well when I started to add the stuffing. But I needed a lot of stuffing to make it look right, so my advise is: buy good stuffing. Nowadays you can buy stuffing in many large shops but the only stuffing I like is Panda stuffing or Restyle stuffing. It's really worth to pay a bit more for good quality because you will need less stuffing when you use a better quality.

The pattern includes a sewn swimming shorts, but because I am really disastrous with the sewing machine I have crocheted it. The shorts fit and stay in place. You can find the pattern below (only in Dutch as the pattern is available only in Dutch as well).

Now here are the materials I used: a crochet hook size 3mm and Phildar Phil Coton 3 in the colours: Veronese (3 balls), Craie (1 ball), Cerise (1 ball) and scraps of black yarn. For the eyes I used a set of safety eyes 8mm. Again: invest in good eyes and preferably choose the eyes with the plastic washers and not the ones with the metal ring. The cheaper eyes (with plastic back) are very difficult to use, and both the cheap version with the metal ring as the ones with the plastic washers let go easily. I always order my eyes here.

Hopefully my tips will help you with making this cute frog. Happy crocheting!